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Connections...
October 6, 2002- 27th Sunday of the Year
The parable of the vineyard owner's son:
"The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruits.."
Matthew 21: 33-43
SEMMELWEIS' FOLLY
Chances are you have never heard of Ignaz Semmelweis. He is responsible for one of the most important innovations in health care. And it cost him his medical career and, some believe, his life.
Doctor Semmelweis was an obstetrician in 19th century Austria. In his work with mothers and children he came to a conclusion that, at the time, was very controversial in the medical community: that germs caused disease. As a young doctor at a maternity hospital in Vienna, he was horrified to find that one mother in ten died of fever. These were poor people - rich people still had their babies at home.
Observing hospital procedures, Doctor Semmelweis suspected that the doctors themselves were bringing the infection to the mothers - he noticed that doctors often went directly from dissecting corpses in the morgue to examining mothers in the maternity ward. He suggested as an experiment that the doctors wash their hands before touching the mothers.
His colleagues were insulted. How dare this young nobody doctor make such a suggestion to physicians fare more experienced and knowledgeable. But Doctor Semmelweis stubbornly pushed and pushed. Some doctors made a point of washing their hands--to ridicule and scorn their impertinent young colleague. They would lather and scrub their hands with great histrionics, making fun of Semmelweis' simplistic solution.
But the dying stopped. Doctor Semmelweis' simple suggestion, now standard procedure in all hospitals, saved millions and millions of lives--including yours and mine and your children and your children's children.
Yet, instead of being hailed for his discovery, Doctor Semmelweis continued to be deeply resented. He was forced out of the hospital and Austria itself. He finished his career in a small provincial hospital in Hungary where he died a broken and disillusioned man. [Kurt Vonnegut.]
CONNECTION: Faith can be demanding and risky; trying to hold on to moral and ethical values in the face of conventional wisdom can be costly. Throughout our lives we are challenged to put aside the values of God in order not to upset the order of things deemed important by society. As Doctor Semmelweis sadly discovered, the witness to the Gospel we are called to give can subject us to misunderstanding, suspicion, abuse, intimidation and ridicule; living the principles of the Gospel can be discouraging, isolating and humiliating. Yet every one of us who claims to be a disciple of the Risen Christ is called to pay whatever price is demanded for the sake of the reign of God, for we believe that love rather than greed, peace rather than hostility, forgiveness rather than vengeance will yield the harvest of the Father's vineyard. ¦
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